Sketch of the history and influence of the Press in British India; containing remarks on the effects of a free press on subsidiary alliances; on the delays of office, etc

Front matter

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND INFLUENCE OF ®&e _Pre$£ IN BRITISH INDIA; CONTAINING REMARKS ON THE EFFECTS OF A $xtt Wxw ON subsidiary alliances ; on the delays of office ; on superstition; on the administration of justice; on flogging; and on agriculture. ALSO, ON THE DANGERS OF A FREE PRESS, AND THE HfaMfousn_ss of a ©ensorsfn'p. " The Liberty of the Press is attended with so few inconveniences, that it may be claimed as the common right of mankind, and ought to be indulged them in almost every government, except the ecclesiastical, to which, indeed, it would be fatal." — Hume. By LEICESTER STANHOPE. LONDON : PUBLISHED by c. chapple, royal library, pall mall. 1823. Printed by G. Smallfield, Hackney. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF GREY, &c. &c. &c. My Lord, It is not to cover the defects too observable in these pages that I venture to dedicate them to your Lordship, for " books should have no patrons but truth and reason."

I present them to your Lord ship as the tried patron of the liberties of England, Genoa, and Norway ; of Africa, and of the whole world. After a life thus usefully devoted to the high interests of man, nothing surely but an universal Censorship on the Press can prevent your Lordship from appearing, on the archives of the human race, as a public benefactor. I am Your Lordship's most devoted servant, LEICESTER STANHOPE. In the performance of their duties, it is the proud fate of British officers to traverse the world. The character of our education, the genius of our go vernment, lead us to take a sympathy in the fortunes of men, and to promote their welfare. Under the controul of this feeling I have acted. I have collected and published my own and other men's thoughts on the present, and, highly pro bable, future influence of the Press in Asia.

The cause is noble and of paramount importance to the immediate interests of nearly four-fifths of our fellow -subjects, who pay us, in yearly tribute, about twenty millions sterling. Regardless of self, my endeavour has been to speak out with truth and impartiality, and by furnishing some information respecting a far distant country, to forward the laudable exertions of those who, from their talents and pur suits, are capable of applying such knowledge to the public advantage. More cannot be expected from a Soldier. London, April 17, 1823. CONTENTS. Section Page I. Introductory - - - - 1 II. State of the Press in British India, previous to the Establishment of a Censorship - 4 III. Establishment of a Censorship on the Press, in British India 6 IV. Military Disturbances at Madras - - 10 V. Abolition of the Censorship - 12 VI.

Section I

Introductory. " The personal rights and civil liberty of the inhabitants of India are in every respect as much under the paternal government of the King, as the rights aud privileges of the people of the United King dom." — Edinburyh Review. The present King of England had the virtue to no minate the Earl of Moira, Governor-General of British India, and to place under his charge about a twelfth part of the human race. The responsibility attached to such a charge is truly awful, and it remains to be proved whether his Lordship has fulfilled the duties of that important station. In these scrutinizing times, when a states man's merits are under discussion, the plain questions for consideration are, What wrong has he done, and what good has he effected ? The public man who cannot en dure this ordeal is either doomed to have his name en rolled in the obscure lists of political traders, quacks, rats, sloths, vampires, and other vermin that prey upon the constitution, or to have it "damned to everlasting fame."

The most important maxim of morality and of politics V. is this — Do no wrong! " Le pr.cepte meme de faire du bien, s'il est subordonne a celui-la, est dangereux, faux, contradictoire ; le m .chant fait du bien, il fait un-heu reux aux d.pens de cent miserables." * Now, whatever wrong the Marquis of Hastings may have done, has been open to free discussion. His Lordship threatened Mr. Buckingham on account of some sharp sarcasms upon the late Bishop of Calcutta, which appeared in his Journal. With this exception, the writer is not aware of any wrong done by that ruler, or, in portraying his public conduct, he should feel it his duty to proclaim it to the world. The next question for consideration is, What good has the Marquis of Hastings effected ? He conquered the enemies of the state, placed the empire in security, and established order and a system of police all over Central India.

Lord Hastings treated the native princes with cour tesy and justice, and reformed the abuses of the subsidiary states. He restored the representative Government of Elders in the Rajpoot countries. By the establishment of native agency, he cleared the files of the courts, of the vast arrears of undecided causes. Lord Hastings adopted the practice of the ancient sovereigns, by receiv ing in his walks and rides the petitions of the meanest natives. He paid every attention to their complaints, and caused inquiry to be made as to the truth of their allega tions. Thus an appeal was open to all, and oppression was checked, if not prevented. His Lordship also im proved the system of administrative justice in the army, and calmed the angry feelings of the soldiery ; so that no military disturbance has taken place during his long go- * Rousseau. vernment.

Notwithstanding the extensive and protracted wars in which he was engaged, the revenues have im proved and he has reduced the interest of money. Lord Hastings has founded Colleges and Schools all over the country. Seminaries for the lower orders had indeed been established there from time immemorial, but it was equally the object of the government and the teachers to engraft superstition on the youthful mind; that both mind and body might be enslaved. The system of education adopted all over the world was framed after the model of these Hindoo schools, and there is a striking fact connected with this history. When Sir W. Jones visited Madras, one Andrew Ross, a merchant, took him to a village school in the neigh bourhood of the Presidency. This great man was im mediately struck with the simplicity, economy, and utility of this system of education.

His remarks made a strong impression on the good merchant, who afterwards, I be lieve, persuaded Dr. Bell to establish at Madras the Male Asylum, of which Andrew Ross was a director. The most remarkable feature, however, of the Marquis of Hastings's administration, and which will render it im mortal, was the abolition of the base Censorship on the Press. By the diffusion of education and the establishment of a Free Press, the great sources of knowledge were thrown open ; all the intelligence of the age was set at work to promote improvement, and superstition and des potism cannot long breathe in so light and pure an atmos phere. b

Section II

Slate of the Press in British India, previous to the Establishment of a Censorship. " However surprising it might seem in absolute Governments, yet it is certain that the historians of the East wrote with more freedom concerning persons and things than writers have ever dared to do in the West." — Dow's Indostan. Previous to Lord Wellesley's administration, no re striction on writing or publishing had ever existed in Indostan. The Censorship of the Press or on writing there, was an innovation, and this alone was wanting, where power fell into the hands of an arbitrary ruler, to com plete the sum of human misery under Asiatic despotism. The Hindoos of ancient times were distinguished for their learning. Abstract speculations and a redundant mythology obscured their more useful knowledge ; still they were a people far advanced in the march of in tellect.

Their government was indeed despotic, but no trace has been discovered in history or law-book, of any restriction on writing. In those times, all was open to research and discussion, and there were no limits to their acquirements but the powers of their own minds. The Mahommedan Emperors gave every encouragement to learning. The Institutes of Timur and of Akbar abound with incitements to their subjects to cultivate their minds and to improve their knowledge. " I ordained," says the latter Emperor, " that in every town and in every city a mosque and a school, and a monastery and an alms-house for the poor and indigent, and an hospital for the sick and infirm, should be founded." * Their colleges were crowded with learned men, and in these schools there were no restraints on the liberty of investigation.

The historians of Indostan wrote with freedom on the conduct and duties of their sovereigns, and some of their rulers acted up to the noble principles which their Chro niclers inculcated. Abulfazil states that Akbar was visible to every body twice in the course of twenty-four hours, and that he received their petitions without the intervention of any person, and, tried and decided upon them. " Akbar," says he, " seateth himself on the eminence of humanity. In his behaviour there is such a condescen sion that the petitioner seems to be the judge, and him self the suitor for justice. He considers the happiness of the people as the best means of pleasing the Creator. He is ever searching after those who speak truth, and he is not displeased with words that are bitter in appearance but sweet in effect.

He is not contented in that solely, himself doth not commit violence, but he sees that no injustice is committed." Persons are apt to make a boastful contrast between British rule and the system of anarchy that preceded it. Let them rather compare the noble administration of Akbar with that even of a Corn wallis or a Hastings. Upon the whole it appears, that under the reign of Akbar there was greater liberty indulged in petitioning, in education, and in writing, than was enjoyed at that period in England. * Institutes of Timur.

Section III

Establishment of a Censorship on the Press, in British India. " They rather desire to be Kings than to rule the people under the King, which will not administer justice by law, but by their own will." — Bacon. " If every one of the twenty-two articles of charge brought against Warren Hastings had been proved, they would not have formed a crime of such enormous magnitude as that single one of having extin guished the Liberty of the Press in a portion of the British Empire containing fifty millions of inhabitants." Previous to the establishment of a Censor of the Press by Lord Wellesley, the people of India had the same liberty to write as to breathe or to live. No law forbad it. Under Warren Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir John Shore, the Press was free even to licentiousness. They did not indulge an unreasonable expectation, from any human institution, of permanent good, unalloyed by temporary evil.

Satisfied with the essential advantages that accrued to mankind from free discussion, they had too much sense to restrain it on account of personal at tacks, or occasional severe and even intemperate sarcasms on their government. Thus a Free Press existed under the wisest of our statesmen, even in times of great diffi culty and awful danger. The arrival of Lord Wellesley in India was soon followed by the establishment of a Censorship,— a fatal revolution by which reason herself was stifled : " For he who kills a man, kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself."* Thus knowledge of every description was communicated or withheld, according to the arbitrary discretion of a mercenary and perhaps ignorant licenser. The property of authors he could destroy, and extend the evils of mono poly, assigning no reason but the conclusive argument of power, " for such is our pleasure!"

The extortions and oppressions of the government were now concealed, and the groans of the natives were suppressed, till dangerous rebellions were the consequence; while England, for more than twenty years, was deprived of all information of India, except such as she obtained from the servants of her government. The immediate cause which led to this catastrophe was the illegal imprisonment of a Mr. Allan Maclean, under the following circumstances : Mr. D'Aguilar and Mr. A. Maclean were partners in an indigo work, near Gauzepore. These gentlemen quarrelled about their concerns, and a fray took place, in which Mr. Maclean struck Mr. D'Aguilar on the nose. Mr. M. then offered satis faction, but Mr. D. rode off to a magistrate, and swore the peace against him. The magistrate, though no justice of the peace, and without even hearing what Mr. M. had to say, and refusing to admit him to bail, committed him to prison.

The magistrate then wrote to the appeal judges at Benares, who had no right to interfere, for instructions how to act. Mr. Treves, one of these judges, signed a letter, ordering the magistrate to send Mr. M. Milton. in confinement, to Calcutta. Mr. Neave, another of the appeal judges, was absent, and disapproved the measure. The magistrate then sent Mr. M. down the river in a baggage boat, without any proper covering, and under the guard of a sergeant, corporal, and twelve sepoys. In this boat, exposed to the burning sun by day, and to unhealthy dews by night, the prisoner remained for up wards of a month. Meanwhile Mr. M. having commu nicated the circumstances to his namesake, Dr. Maclean, of Calcutta, and a paragraph announcing the death of Mr. M. having appeared in the India Gazette, the Doctor wrote to the Editor, as follows : " Sir, I request you will con tradict the account which, through some very gross misinformation, was inserted in the last India Gazette and Hircarrah, announcing the death of Mr. A. Maclean, said to be shot in a duel at Benares.

I this day received a letter from that gentleman, mentioning indeed some circumstances which, if his antagonist had not possessed an uncommon degree of prudence, might have led to that catastrophe ; but I am happy to add that the only dis agreeable effects of the rencontre have arisen from the interference of the magistrate of Gauzepore, whose con duct upon this occasion I will take a due opportunity of appreciating. I am, &c, C. Maclean. Calcutta, April 28th, 1798." This letter produced the release of Mr. M. at Monghyr, and the banishment of Dr. Maclean, and the first esta blishment of a Censorship in Asia. This letter, too, it must be noticed, for it would require the piercing saga city of the Grand Inquisitor and his Familiars in pious conclave to make the discovery, was stamped a libel.

As well might those sages call the Bible so. " For royalties are deem'd most sacred things, So sacred by the courtiers, that the Bible May be informed against, and proved a libel, For saying, ' Put no confidence in kings.'" * After the publication of this libel, Dr. M. was called upon by the Government to make an apology ; he in a mild but becoming tone refused to do so, and was sent home a prisoner. By this manly conduct, Dr. M. sacri ficed an income of _£700 per annum, and about _f2000, which he had expended on a printing apparatus. In this outcast and ruined state, the Doctor solicited a pas sage for himself and his wife, upon which the Governor- General ordered them to be provided for as charter-party passengers ; that is, this gentleman and lady were to be accommodated with the pariahs* of the East, and the scum of English jails, and to be fed on ship provision till they reached England.

The comment on this procedure may be summed up in one sentence : " First he punish eth, and then he trieth, and, lastly, compelleth to confess, and makes and mars laws at his pleasure. But good judges abhor these courses."f On Lord Wellesley's return to England, Dr. Maclean published his case, and no man, throughout, ever behaved with greater prudence and firmness. Dr. Maclean has since become well known to the public, by his researches in Turkey respecting the causes and treatment of the plague, and in Spain concerning the yellow fever ; with a view to promote the abolition of quarantine, or sanitary establishments. * Peter Pindar. f A low and despised Caste. X Coke's Institutes.

Section IV

Military Disturbances at Madras. " These men, seeing the liberty which others possess, and which they themselves are excluded from, are apt, like eunuchs in the East ern seraglios, to indulge a malignant pleasure in contributing to destroy those privileges to which they never can be admitted." — Montesquieu. Previous to the establishment of a Board of Controul, the ministers had no interest in concealing maladminis tration in British India. The Press was then free, and the Parliament resounded with complaints. On the con trary, during Lord Wellesley's brilliant administration, all was quiet. Yet in these unnatural restraints upon the developement of the human mind, was contained the source of future misrule. The Government, in fact, was left without a check. The Censor, like the great Inqui sitor, blasphemously assuming omniscience, exercised arbitrary power over the minds of men, and stifled their thoughts, which God, in his all-wise benevolence, had given them for their mutual aid and benefit.

An endless list, indeed, of dangers and oppressions would have been averted by the Press. Among the rest, free discussion might have prevented the military disturbances that took place under the Censorship at Madras. The armies of India have never been so tran quil as during the wise administration of the Marquis of Hastings, though the newspapers were full of discussion on military matters. The soldiers of France, Spain, Por tugal, and Italy, promoted revolutions in these countries. Instead of being abandoned to such desperate remedies, had those countries been in possession of a Free Press, its timely operation would have gradually checked and put down abuses, and produced a favourable reform without those awful convulsions. The army of England is free from any bad spirit, be cause its grievances are animadverted upon by the Press.

Any undue severity in punishing, or abuse of patronage, is made known. The public complain, and the evil is, soon or late, redressed. The same publicity in India has of late produced the same result. The armie9 of India are admirably disciplined. There are, however, some radical defects in their system. The partiality shewn to the army of a particular Presidency, the ine quality of allowances, the slowness of promotion of the Company's officers, compared with their brother soldiers in the King's service, and the delays of office at Madras, and in the payment of prize money, are grievances that should be exposed and redressed. Like the King's army, the Company's would then have no wrongs to excite them into acts of violence. — ♦—

Section V

Abolition of the Censorship. " Lord Moira's head and heart are both too good to be suffered to rule this country." — Home Tooke. " When the monarchs of Egypt raised such stupendous masses, for no other use but to record their names, they little suspected that a weed growing by the Nile would one day be converted into more durable registers of fame than quarries of marble and granite." — Lord, Orford. The Marquis of Hastings abolished the Censorship in British India. This perhaps was the noblest, because it was the most extensively useful act recorded on British annals. A death-blow it was to superstition, with her swarm of gods, and to despotism, the growth of thirty centuries. It was the birth of hope to about one-twelfth portion of the human race, and to their offspring from generation to generation.

A durable monument it was, which will excite the genius and improvement of every age, and remain in Asia a proud record of the strength and virtue of Britain. The Press at Madras still continued under the controul of a Censor. The inhabitants of that Presidency requested permission of their Government to hold a meeting for the purpose of addressing the Marquis of Hastings on the measures of his administration. The leading authorities at Madras having opposed the late war, and disapproving of the diffusion of Education and the establishment of a Free Press, delayed for several months to honour the pe titioners with a satisfactory answer. At last, after repeat ed solicitations, the Government was pleased to consent, and the meeting was held " at the Exchange, on Wed nesday, May 26, 1819." The following is an extract of the proceedings, the publication of which was prohibited at Madras.

" Mr. Scott, Chief Judge of the Company's Court, having taken the Chair, addressed the Meeting in a short speech, explanatory of the purposes for which they were convened, after which Sir Samuel Toller (the Advocate- General*) thus introduced the business of the Meeting: " Mr. Chairman, — I rise with great satisfaction to make a motion which, I am persuaded, will meet with the unanimous concurrence of this assembly, and experience the general approbation of the whole settlement. " Sir, — The motion I beg leave to make, is, that an Address be prepared and presented by this Presidency to the Most Noble the Marquis of Hastings, to congratulate his Lordship on the success of his measures as Governor- General of British India." " Col. Stanhope. Mr. Chairman, — In the absence of Mr. Staveley, who was to have followed the Advocate- General in this discussion, I second the motion for an Address.

I exceedingly regret that the learned gentle man is not here to do justice with his chaste and strong eloquence to the Marquis of Hastings' measures, more especially as I feel myself unequal to that task. " I hold, Sir, in my hand an Address which was given to me yesterday morning by a gentleman who requested I would lay it before a Committee of this Meeting. I now beg to hand it over to the Chairman, who will deli ver it to the Foreman of the Committee, when one shall have been appointed. Gentlemen, injustice to myself, I • A law-officer similar to our Attorney-General. beg to state, that I recommended the author to entrust this Address to the care of some one who had weight and influence with the Settlement, and who possessed the talent necessary to secure its success. I regret that he has not followed my advice.

The paper, I venture to affirm, has merit. It is free from all vulgar compliment or base flattery, and it contains a concise and faithful sketch of the prominent features of the Marquis of Hast ings* civil and military administration. I shall comment on the subject matter of this Address presently, but must first convey to this assembly a remark which has just been made to me. I have been told that some present are hostile to the late war. I rejoice to hear it. God forbid that any war should be undertaken without opposition, especially under a Government where every man finds his personal interest in war; — we soldiers in the extension of our establishments, you of the civil service in the extension of yours. Be there, then, any here who, careless of their fortunes, can oppose the policy of the war on conscientious principles, they deserve our anxious attention.

Let them come forward, try their strength, and we'll try ours. Should they prove the war unjust, they shall have my zealous support ; if not, I solicit theirs. " It was my intention to have entered cursorily on the policy of the late war, but this subject has been handled in so masterly a manner by Sir S. Toller, that I do not now consider it necessary to dilate on it. Had I done so, I should have endeavoured to have proved that the dangers of extended rule, of being lost in expansion or rather in corruption, evils dreadful to contemplate, had been diminished by the war. This contest had enabled us to consolidate our power, to strengthen the heart of our empire, and to shorten by straightening our line of frontier. It had made us sound at home, and had given us power to repel invasion. In the place of robbery, extortion, and oppression, order had been established — order, the source of justice, freedom, and all that is great in government.

In a word, it had enabled us to shake off a vicious, and to assume an honest controul. Now good government, however extended, constitutes strength — not danger, not decline ; whereas bad government, however indirectly and slily exercised, leads on to ruin, perhaps to the parent, perhaps to the dependent state, possibly to the injury of both. By ruin, I mean not loss of wealth and dominion, but loss of moral character and British pre-eminence. Hence I conclude, that the greater the extent of an empire, the more scrupulously should it be governed. I have thrown out this hint by the way, and shall now proceed to the discussion of a subject of paramount importance, and which has not been touched upon : I allude to the suppression of the Censorship of the Press at Calcutta. This generous act of power should, I think, be referred to in your Address.

The establishment of a Free Press in Asia, is, in my estimation, the most magnanimous act of the Marquis of Hastings' administration, and is that which will come most home to the bosoms of high-minded men. " Gentlemen, you well know what large powers are vested in a Governor-General, and how few men there are who have strength of soul to controul their passions under so vast and tempting a liberty. We are told, in deed, that prosperity is the great corruptor of the human heart, and history confirms the apophthegm. Her instruc tive page, however, — nay, even our own times, — furnish us with some few exceptions to this degrading rule. He surely is a noble exception to it who, returned from triumph in the pride and zenith of power, does away with the Censorship of the Press, and makes that Press a Cen sor on his own Government.

" Permit me now to say a few words on the nature of a Free Press. If, as we are told, the understanding be the noblest faculty of the soul, it is wise, it is our duty to cultivate and improve it. This can only be done by consulting our own and other men's thoughts. Now, since these thoughts are chiefly communicated by means of language or writing, the usefulest privilege of man is to speak and to write freely. The right of speech is a great law of nature, which is the law of nations when applied to states, and no human law should contradict it. Like speech, the Press too is but another means of giving currency to our thoughts, and, like it, analogously reason ing, is the common right of all. ■ God gives us reason and freedom to choose ; why then should human governments effect a rigour contrary to his divine ordinances ?' " The great objection made to the liberty of the Press is its licentiousness, or the facility afforded of abusing it.

The same objection may be made to speech or to religion, to free-will, to locomotion, or to any other of our liberties. But offences and crimes are subject to the scrutiny of judges and to public opinion, which is the common law of society, and every breach of duty is followed by a suitable punishment. There are who contend that go vernment is brought into disrepute by a Free Press. Ay, bad government is, because truth pierces it to the heart ; but a mild and just government fears not even slander. It courts truth ; for truth is strong, and generally prevails over falsehood in a free encounter. Nay, I hold that opinions, though erroneous, when well canvassed and digested, tend to the ultimate advancement of truth. Montesquieu drives the argument further : ' In a free nation,' says he, * it is very often a matter of indifference whether individuals reason well or ill ; it is sufficient that they do reason : from hence springs that liberty which is a security from the effects of these reasonings.' " Look to countries where the liberty of the Press does not prevail.

Pronounce whether they are honester and wiser than our own. Look to France, and judge whether Buonaparte could have enslaved her under a Free Press, or whether he could have re-established himself on his bad eminence, isa Free Press had enlightened and chastened the public mind; or whether again Europe could have overthrown his power, isa Free Press had not kept England sound. The slavery of the Press under the tyrant was excessive. The tyrant placed all literary decisions in the hands of Government. The tyrant's police disposed of the success of a writer in the same way as it granted licences for gambling. Take the case of Neckar as an instance. Every periodical paper in France teemed with official libels on his character, and no friend of truth was allowed to contradict these falsehoods.

Thus Neckar sunk into the grave basely slandered; Neckar, who had served the state without emolument, and had devoted his; property to support her finances during its rude fortunes ; Neckar, who had done what tyrants could not do — the influence of whose personal character upon public credit, though a foreigner, had raised the French funds 30 per cent in one day ; and who, in the words of his great daughter, ' was a firmer friend to liberty than Pitt, more austere than Fox, and not less energetic, nor less elo quent, nor less penetrated with the dignity of the state, than Lord Chatham ! !' And yet this Buonaparte was neither in virtue nor vice distinguished above some tyc rants. Gentlemen, I see dissent lowering upon your brows ; but surely Cæsar far excelled him in virtue, and Nero, or his contemporary Robespierre, in wickedness.